Sony’s best ever premium smartphone has arrived [video]

Today marks the emergence of Sony’s best premium smartphone to date – the Xperia™ Z2, which features superior display, sound, camera, and camcorder in a waterproof* smartphone. Xperia Z2 features the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 801 processor MSM8974AB quad-core 2.3 GHz processor with 3GB RAM, and Adreno 330 GPU. It comes with a 5.2” Full HD TRILUMINOS™ Display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, Live Colour LED, 4K video capture, and Digital Noise Cancelling. The Xperia Z2 also supports 4G LTE, NFC, and ANT+, and will launch on Android 4.4 (KitKat). Get the full specs for Xperia Z2 after the jump.

The Xperia Z2 takes the Sony experience to the next level, by combining the best technologies Sony has to offer in a waterproof smartphone:

Best-ever display – 5.2” TRILUMINOS Display for mobile with new Live Colour LED.

Performance plus powerXperia Z2 comes fully integrated with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2.3 GHz processor, quad core Krait CPU and 4G LTE for fast performance. It also has a large 3200mAh battery to provide outstanding battery performance. And with Sony’s Battery STAMINA mode, you can stay connected even longer.

Unbeatable display with new Live Colour LEDXperia Z2’s 5.2” screen uses a Full HD TRILUMINOS display with the new Live Colour LED, powered by an image processor using a Sony-developed algorithm that provides the widest palette of natural colours. Live Colour LED uses red and green phosphor with blue LEDs and customised colour filters to produce a brighter and more uniform light. Xperia Z2 also uses X-Reality for mobile, which analyses each image to optimise colours, sharpness and contrast while also reducing noise.

The ultimate in waterproofing designDesigned with our highest level of waterproofing, Xperia Z2 has a slimmer feel with glass panels encased in a single aluminum frame with smoother edges. In addition to Xperia Z2’s dust-resistance and waterproof (IP55 & IP58) features, its OmniBalance design is balanced with symmetry for a comfortable, natural hold.

Sony Xperia Z2 in black colour.

20.7MP camera + 4K camcorder technologyXperia Z2 features a 20.7MP camera with 1/2.3-type Exmor RS™ for mobile CMOS image sensor, Sony’s award-winning G Lens and intelligent BIONZ™ for mobile image processing engine, all designed to deliver superb video and photos. With new enhanced video mode, capture video in 4K resolution (3840×2160 pixels/30p) at four times Full HD. The new Movie Creator allows you to trim and crop your videos, plus add slowdown effects with preview functionality.

Develop Xperia camera apps for Xperia Z2A smart social camera system allows developers use the Sony Add-on SDK to create camera add-ons that extend functionality and re-define the Xperia Z2 camera’s role. A growing number of third party apps are already available through the Sony Select app recommendation service and accessible directly from the camera app on the Xperia Z2. Simply go into your camera viewfinder, tap the camera mode icon and then click on ‘+Apps’ to see all the latest Xperia camera apps available on Sony Select.

Also, a suite of Smart Social camera apps for photo and video comes preloaded in Xperia Z2. New apps include:

Timeshift video: Lets you shoot in 120 frames per second and select scenes to slow the playback speed for dramatic slow motion effects exactly where you want, even underwater.

Creative effect: Enhance photos and videos with a range of effects such as colours, image trails, mirror and motion effects.

Background defocus: Capture two photos at different focus settings and blend together the different depths, leading to a blurred out background for more professional looking photos.

AR effect: Add some fun to photos and videos with new augmented reality animations, including sound effects for video.

Perfect second screen for PS4 gamingInstall the PlayStation App and use your Xperia Z2 as a second screen in supported PS4 games. For example, on THE PLAYROOM, which comes pre-installed in all PS4 systems, you can draw pictures on your mobile device screens and flick them towards the TV. It then appears as a 3D object within the game. Also, when your friends upload or begin live streaming their gameplay on PS4 systems, their activities are displayed on the “What’s New” section of the PlayStation®App screen. You can then tap on this notification, to watch them in gameplay. You can also post comments on gameplay screenshots, footage and live streams.

Develop for Xperia Z2A number of Sony developer tools and APIs are available for the Xperia Z2, including the Sony Add-on SDK, which is an add-on for the standard Android™ SDK, and allows you to extend your app to make it work with Sony SmartWatch 2 and a number of other Sony Smart Accessories with the Smart Extension APIs. You can also make your imaging app part of the Xperia Z2’s camera app with the Camera Add-on API. And since Xperia Z2 is compatible with the DUALSHOCK®3 Wireless Controller, developers can optimise their Android games with controller support using our DUALSHOCK3 wireless controller tutorial.

Xperia Z2 in black, white and purple colours.

Availability and coloursThe Xperia Z2 is available in black, white, or purple colour variants. The Xperia Z2 will launch globally from March 2014.

*Xperia™ Z2 is a waterproof smartphone (in compliance with IP55/58††) featuring 4K video capture with a 20.7MP camera. Specifications verified by Strategy Analytics’ SpecTRAX service as of 21st February 2014, for more information on Strategy Analytics results go to: www.sonymobile.com/testresults/.

By ayush murarka

By Anonymous 1-YS7KZ8

If it cant support current indian LTE version, will it be able to support future LTE version? Will it get any updates for LTE like HTC ONE M8?I am curious to know whether I need to buy a different mobile for LTE in the future?

By Anthony Williams

By s.a. t.

The camera could be moved from the top to the middle of the phone just above the center that would allow better grip for portrait and landscape mode without blocking camera lens with happens very often with xperia phones

Optical image stabilisation would be handy

Less pixels (12.1 Mp) more sensor!

And please more sizes to shoot photos in 12 10 9 8 7 6 Mp … Come must be possible

In app per file password protected encryption for sensitive data

Replace the plastic rims with more aluminum will make aluminum frame stronger with the z1 I can press the aluminum frame and see it move it is too weak

The edge of the magnetic charging port is sharp and should be much more rounded

flaps protected ports do feel sharp and could be relocated to top to have smooth soft sides

The 5 inch plus sized xperia phones need to become less wide 68 mm would give the phone a way better grip and give it a much less slippery fish feel

Thin is out more battery is in

Ui design why are many buttons high In the screen? Keep them low low low, keep in mind information top, input bottom as much as possible, my thumb is not 5 inch

Kitkat quick settings are insane do I really need to pull down and then go up again to hit the quick settings tab? And select a quicksetting again in the top of the screen? This is ugly hiding quick… Settings in a difficult to reach place should be a swipe, tabs on bottom, and quicksetting lined out on bottom.

Many apps and software are poorly named so it is not easy to understand what they are and what they do and if it is suitable to disable them in the settings better naming and a description of the app would be great

Many services and social apps I dont use but cannot be removed can not be disabled give me the choice to remove it no Facebook no twitter Picasa and flicker and such make it a plug-in make it optional make it removable don’t let it eat memory cpu and battery And don’t let it get in my way

And please merge sony select sony privilege sony lounge sony Playstation sony entertainment sony play memories in one single account one single app with one news section one shop and one place for all things sony like Google play and give us privacy choice and protection

Other things aah sony widgets beautiful but… No consistency give them all the same look please and let it be colored by the theme the Walkman widget does not match the white control widgets the email and agenda app have different looks that needs improvements

Artwork from previous models could be offered again as a second option in a new model I use the beautiful cosmic live wallpaper in the z1 from my previous xperia s why trash good artwork? Keep it in and add more to it

By s.a. t.

By Aleksejs Bozinskis

Nice device, but most unfortunate that SONY squeezes too many pixels in camera. How many peoples need so much pixels in phone camera? 1%? Why we need to buy this crappy camera? I want PREMIUM phone with PREMIUM camera, not crappy camera with PREMIUM pixel count. This pixel count is totally useless. Keep sensor size 1/2.3″, but reduce pixel count to 8-10Mpix. My DSLR has 8Mpix ONLY and I have to reduce most of photos. What to do with 20Mpix? Show me best 20Mpix photo from this camera at full resolution and I will show full resolution photo from my 8Mpix DSLR and we will compare QUALITY… not quantity.
P.S: I want SONY provide 2 camera options – both with same sensor sizes, but alternative with say 8Mpix. Even 8 there is not necessary.